Hitless in his past 15 at-bats, Joe Mauer is struggling through his biggest slump of the season, with his major league-leading average down to .350.
But after two perplexing losses to the Kansas City Royals, the Twins would place Mauer low on their list of biggest concerns.
Injuries continued to mount Wednesday, the offense continued to sputter, and the Twins lost more precious ground in the standings with a 4-3 loss at the Metrodome.
After surging to the wild-card lead last weekend in Chicago, the Twins have fallen 1½ games behind the White Sox and six games behind Detroit in the AL Central.
And on the same day the Twins learned Brad Radke will miss his next start because of a right shoulder setback, they watched leadoff hitter Luis Castillo leave the game in the sixth inning because of a sprained right ankle.
Manager Ron Gardenhire said it was a mild sprain that might keep the second baseman out for only one or two games.
"He's a pretty tough guy, so he'll want to get back out there as soon as possible," Gardenhire said. "But you never know with an ankle. That's a tough thing to have in the infield when you're stopping and going and all those things."
With rosters expanding Friday, the Twins could promote Terry Tiffee from Class AAA Rochester to play third base if Nick Punto must fill Castillo's spot at second.
Still, this could weaken a lineup that has been no match for Kansas City pitching this week.
The same Royals team that gave up 41 runs to Minnesota in a four-game rollover earlier this month has baffled the Twins with lefty Mark Redman and righty Luke Hudson.
At 48-85, Kansas City has the worst record in the majors, but the Royals are 31-36 since June 17. The Twins will send Johan Santana to the mound today, hoping to avoid a three-game sweep.
"You can sit here and say, 'Wow, you're getting beat by these guys or those guys,' " Gardenhire said. "But that team over there is playing their hearts out, and they've been doing this to a lot of different teams."
After going scoreless against Redman for nine innings, the Twins managed only two runs in seven innings against Hudson (7-5).
Kansas City overcame a 2-0 deficit with three runs in the sixth, all charged to Twins starter Boof Bonser (3-5), a hard-luck loser again.
Jesse Crain surrendered the go-ahead single to Mike Sweeney, and Juan Rincon gave up a key insurance run on a bloop, two-out single by Paul Bako in the ninth.
That proved huge when Michael Cuddyer hit his second home run of the game -- and 20th of the season -- in the ninth inning, pulling the Twins within one run. Joe Nelson retired Justin Morneau, Torii Hunter and Jason Kubel for his fourth save.
Mauer certainly isn't the only one struggling, but the team has grown used to seeing him on base.
He compounded his woes Wednesday with a throwing error and a passed ball.
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